Singaporean YouTube stars Ryan and Sylvia of Night Owl Cinematics divorce after 10 years of marriage
- Ryan Tan and Sylvia Chan, whose Ryan Sylvia YouTube channel is one of Singapore’s most popular, announced the news in a video
- Tan also revealed his struggles with depression in an Instagram post where he touched on a suicide attempt while filming in Osaka in 2017
The couple behind smash YouTube channel Ryan Sylvia are a true Singaporean success story.
Ryan Tan and Sylvia Chan – co-founders of lifestyle production company Night Owl Cinematics (NOC) – have close to a million subscribers on YouTube and, according to Channel News Asia, have “seven-figure” annual revenue in Singaporean dollars (at least US$715,000). The couple were also named on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia list for media, marketing and advertising in 2016.
So when Tan and Chan recently revealed they had divorced after 10 years of marriage, the news sent fans into a tizzy. The revelation came in a 45-minute YouTube video which has received more than 1.2 million views since it was uploaded on May 31.
The couple said that they had officially divorced in March this year. Their YouTube channel, they assured, would not be affected.
In the video, Tan and Chan acknowledge that expectations to maintain their success, coupled with the demands of fans and pressures to one-up every video they produced, had taken a toll on their relationship.
Tan also admitted he probably isn’t cut out for this line of work. “As much as I love NOC, I blame [our divorce] on NOC,” he said. He repeats the message throughout the video, at one point saying that he felt like an animal in a zoo.
However, Chan said she did not view the situation the same way. “Everything is supposed to be this way in the media industry, and I accept that,” she said.
This fundamental difference inevitably led to conflict, although the former couple maintain that they parted amicably and even walked into a lawyer’s office holding hands on the day their divorce became official.
“The lawyer said that in her 30 years of [handling] divorce proceedings, she had never seen a more peaceful divorce,” Tan said.
The pair met when they were both 16, but only began dating at the age of 21. Eight months later, they tied the knot. In 2013, after four years of failed business ventures, NOC was born.
The day after they announced their divorce, Ryan took to his personal Instagram page to reflect on his marriage and revealed his struggles with depression.
In a candid, lengthy post, he touched on a suicide attempt while filming an Osaka travelogue for NOC back in 2017.
“The mental and emotional abuse, the unrealistic expectation to live a good life, everything is just so exhausting,” he wrote. “I never wanted to be recognisable or famous.”
Tan first hinted at his struggles in a March webisode of the Team Titan Show, which is hosted by YouTube personality Jianhao Tan, who has almost 4.2 million subscribers on his channel.
“During the last week of December [2019], I tried to kill myself,” Tan said. “Sylvia knew, and she was very worried.”
Tan has since begun a routine of working out and eating better, and the former couple are choosing to focus on bettering themselves and growing NOC in healthier ways.
“Even after a divorce, you can remain really good friends,” Sylvia said. “We love NOC, and it will never die.”
